Providing a
Pipeline
Center boosts
opportunities for underrepresented students
By Karen Newell Young
In a state with dramatically changing demographics, USC recently was
faced with a tall order. It sought to create a climate that supports
diversity and academic success, and to increase the number of graduate
students of color who go on to faculty positions.
With generous partial funding from The James Irvine Foundation, and a
commitment from the provost’s office, and the deans of USC College and
the USC Rossier School of Education, the Center for American Studies
and Ethnicity was created in the fall of 2001.
The goals of the center are to overcome the socioeconomic gap in
college achievement, and the gap between higher-education professionals
and professors. Since its inception, the center has expanded
opportunities for graduate students of color, fostering a diverse
climate at USC that better reflects the population of the Golden State;
attracted ambitious graduate students who are guided into higher levels
of education and scholarship; and provided a pool of trained candidates
for faculty recruitment across the nation.
Creating Opportunities
As part of its campus diversity initiative, the Irvine Foundation
bestowed a $3.6 million grant to launch the center and fund more than
45 fellowships. Graduate students are nominated by their departments,
and are provided with two years of funding from the Irvine Foundation
and three years from USC. The five-year program focuses on preparing
graduate students to become professors at research institutions such as
USC.
To be eligible, students must be a member of an underrepresented
minority, generally African-American, Latino or Asian. Their work must
take on issues of race and ethnicity. Fellows participate in Ph.D.
programs in American studies and ethnicity, cinema-television,
communication, education, English, geography, history, political
science, psychology and sociology.
The stipends are especially important to underrepresented minority
graduate students, many of whom are working class and the first in
their families to attend college. Without the fellowship support most
would have to work and would not be able to focus on their academic
ambitions full time.
Along with research opportunities, the students are provided faculty
mentoring, dissertation workshops, academic resources and interaction
with professors at other universities who are experts in their chosen
fields. The grant allows students to attend conferences, obtain peer
review and meet students at other universities in similar programs.
A critical phase of the fellowship is the summer dissertation
workshops. The students are enrolled in intense, one-on-one sessions
with experts in their field of study and are guided through the
dissertation process. The summer workshops provide participants with a
tight schedule of peer review and faculty input. By the end of the
workshops, students are ready to apply to national fellowship
competitions that allow them time and financial support to focus on
their dissertations the next academic year.
Something for Everyone
George Sanchez, associate professor of history, director of the program
in American studies and ethnicity, and head of the center, says that
the Irvine Foundation fellowship program not only benefits graduate
students of color, but also benefits professors in the humanities who
do not ordinarily receive research assistance from graduate students.
“Unlike in the scientific fields, little outside money comes the way of
humanities professors,” he says. “So both faculty and students have a
lot to gain from the fellowships.”
Graduates say the center and fellowships go far beyond mentoring and
expanded opportunities. What they gain is a community of scholarship
and support.
“For me it was a lifeline,” says Ana Rosas, who graduated in 2000 with
a bachelor’s degree in history and American studies. Her dissertation
“Cultural Citizenship: Mexican Immigration and the Politics of
Ethnicity, Race and Place in Los Angeles, circa 1942-1965” landed her a
fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington for the
2003-2004 academic year. “As a working-class student, the fellowship
gave me tools and skills I could not have gotten elsewhere,” she says.
“Sanchez was always there for me at every stage, always encouraging
people by his example. I want to do the kind of work he does.”
Rosas, who was the first member of her family to attend college, says
her Irvine Foundation fellowship provided her with a wealth of
knowledge she otherwise would not have received, including essential
information on how academia works, how to put together a competitive
package for attracting fellowships and what to include in her C.V. “The
whole program was community-building and very supportive for students
like me,” she adds.
“The Irvine fellowships address a lot of issues in higher education,”
Sanchez says. “They help expand the pipeline of future professors of
color, they shorten the length of time most students take to complete
their dissertations, and they provide research help to professors who
don’t ordinarily receive it. In this program, there is something for
everyone.”
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